ARTICLES ABOUT CHICKEN FEED BY DATE - PAGE 2

It was a long train ride home for Clyde Kennard. The Korean War veteran was doing fine at the University of Chicago. But his stepfather died, so Kennard decided to go back home to Mississippi to take care of his mother and the family farm. But he still wanted that degree, so he decided to enroll in Mississippi Southern College in nearby Hattiesburg. Why not? It was close, he had accumulated impressive credits in Chicago and Mississippi Southern survived in some small part off his tax dollars.

They may look like worthless oyster shells to everyone else, but to Don Mitrzyk they are chicken feed. And to some economic development people in the northwest corner of Indiana, that chicken feed is as good as gold. A few years ago, when Mitrzyk was looking for a site to process crushed shells from the Gulf of Mexico, he picked Indiana over Chicago. "I needed a location with a barge connection to the gulf and near the (poultry) markets in Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois," said Mitrzyk, president of Paul Dee Co., of West Branch, Mich.

A sheet of Beethoven's household accounts shows the composer to have been a man of marginal finances, basic eating habits and deplorable arithmetic skills. The list, recently acquired by San Jose State University's Beethoven Center in Northern California, does not contain a note of music. But it documents the purchase of food staples, along with "rolls, stale" and "chicken feed." At the other extreme it confirms a one-day purchase of three roasting chickens, six new plates and four bottles of wine, suggesting guests for dinner.

A 7-inch galvanized steel spike. Twenty-two seedless green grapes. A 10-count travel-pack of Farrah brand facial tissue. And you thought 15 cents couldn`t buy squat. Well it can buy squat. Hence the fuss. Fifteen cents constitutes the "outrageous ripoff" cited recently in a letter from a Downers Grove reader to the Tribune; the "final straw" on the back of a La Grange woman who wrote to her Suburban Life paper; the amount that prompted an Oak Forest woman to declare in the Sun-Times, "I say enough!"

Fast food is a way of American life, and it usually means a quick overdose on grease, salt and calories. That's what makes Poulet Buffet, a bright new spot on East Chicago Avenue just west of Michigan Avenue, somewhat unusual. This fast food chicken is not breaded or deep fried. Instead, it's cooked simply on big rotisseries that line the wall in back of the order-counter, then sold whole, halved or quartered. There also is a selection of vegetables and salads. Although Poulet Buffet is primarily geared as a takeout place, there are a few small tables lined up against one wall and a couple of counters with stools.

Slats Grobnik looked up from his newspaper and said, "Can I ask a stupid question?" Why not? Walter Jacobson has become rich and famous doing just that. "Then tell me this: Why do all these characters want to be mayor?" That is indeed a stupid question. Power, prestige, the chance to shape the city's destiny, to win a page in history. "Nah, I`m talking about a job, see, a job. I`m reading here that Harold Washington has released his tax returns for the years he's been mayor.